Photographic Lightboxes Program
A series of back lit light boxes installed in Metro Rail stations features temporary installations of photo based works. Each artist selected for the program has their work exhibited for a period of six months to one year. The first station in the program is the Wilshire/Normandie Station where a series of seven photographic light boxes have been installed on the south wall of the mezzanine passageway between the station entrance and the lower boarding platform.
Andrew Z. Glickman, artist
Photographs on the D.C. Subway, Installed 2005
Wilshire/Normandie Station
Glickman uses photography to document how subway passengers behave among total strangers. In train cars with ample space, passengers position themselves at carefully calibrated distances from their neighbors. However, once that space has been established they begin to relax and act as they might do in the privacy of home. Glickman prefers to work unnoticed using a 35mm rangefinder camera with a silent shutter and without a flash.
“Every weekday I spend about twenty minutes with the people who appear in this series of photographs. The photographs are exactly what they appear to be – unguarded, unposed moments in the lives of commuters on the Washington, D.C. Metro system.”
Andrew Z. Glickman was born and raised in New York City and received his education at the Bronx High School of Science and the University of Virginia. His work has been supported by the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities and exhibited at galleries and museums including the Art Institute of Chicago. Photographs from this series have been published by the Urban Institute and Communication Arts. Glickman lives with his wife and son in Bethesda, Maryland.
Charles LaBelle, artist
Intervals and Intensities, Installed 2004
Wilshire/Normandie Station
LaBelle’s photographs depict some of LA’s most iconic apartment hotels located in Hollywood, Koreatown and MacArthur Park neighborhoods. These mystifying images draw awareness to important aspects of LA’s past that may have been forgotten. The long exposures give the neon a smoldering luminosity, while the palm trees, illuminated with a hand held spotlight serve as a silent witness to the buildings and their history.
“My aim in making these images was to call attention to places in the city that are often overlooked and to illuminate aspects of the city’s history which have been forgotten. Literally casting a light on the past, my hope is that these images will renew the enchantment of the city for those of us who have come to take its beauty and strangeness for granted.”
Charles LaBelle obtained his Masters in Art from the University of California, Los Angeles. He has exhibited in galleries throughout the United States and Europe. He was a recipient of a Rockefeller Foundation, Bellagio Center Study Fellowship in 2003 and a Getty Trust Fellowship in 2000.
Paul Groh, artist
Voyage of Reflection, Installed 2003-2004
Wilshire/Normandie Station
Groh’s photographs capture opulent reflections from the Wilshire/Normadie Metro Rail station’s architecture. These stunning images of walls, rails and signage encourage commuters to become more visually engaged with their surroundings. The artist has used a grainy film to enhance the idea of how a passenger’s glance may commit a fleeting detail to memory.
“The images encourage commuters to find the actual locations of the pictures within the station; perhaps in this process they will discover their own personal voyages of reflections.”
PAUL GROH formally trained as an architect and his architectural background has informed his practice as a photographer. For the past ten years he has worked with Eric Owen Moss Architects in Culver City while also exhibiting his architectural photography in fine art museums and galleries throughout the United States. His photographs have been shown at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Los Angeles Museum of Modern Art and the Queens Museum of Art and other significant venues.
Robbert Flick, artist
Along WILSHIRE, looking North (from Grand to Mariposa), Installed 2002-2003
Wilshire/Normandie Station
Artist Robbert Flick presents a series of photographs titled, along WILSHIRE, looking North (from Grand to Mariposa). For the series, Flick painstakingly recorded each northern building facade on Wilshire from downtown to just beyond Western during one day: July 10, 1997. These images generally trace the route of the Metro Red (A) Line on Wilshire and become a frozen record of the neighborhood under which the trains run. Flick then combines these color images in grids, one image visually tied to the next, as our eyes move along the route. The result is a remarkable documentation of a neighborhood and a seemingly endless amount of information to contemplate.
ROBBERT FLICK uses photography as his primary medium. Born in Holland, Flick received a B.A. at the University of British Columbia and an M.F.A. at the University of California, Los Angeles. He has been exhibiting his photographs for over 30 years and has shown at almost every West Coast museum and many others around the world. Flick is one of Southern California’s most highly-recognized photographers. He was a Getty Scholar at the Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities during 1996-7.
Eileen Cowin, artist
I see what you’re saying (train of thought), Installed 2001
Wilshire/Normandie Station
In 2001, artist Eileen Cowin inaugurated the program with a series of photographs titled, I see what you’re saying (train of thought). These black and white, larger than life, close-up images of eyes and mouths felt separated from their overall context of a continuing narrative. “Eyes” view, witness, notice, watch and spy while “mouths” talk, pout, utter, and express. In viewing these photographs, we were reminded of our habit of looking at others and reading stories into what we see. As we wait, travel, stand or sit, we daydream and those around us weave into our imagination.
“The ‘gestures’ in these images are plainly seen, but remain ambiguous… These scenes ride the edge between the real and the unreal, between social commentary and personal fantasy.”